Snowy owl showing signs of improvement; how it became trapped is still a mystery

Eric Bonzar/EBonzar@MorningJournal.com
Amy LeMonds, director of wildlife for the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center prepares to feed a snowy owl, Jan. 20. LeMonds rescued the animal from the basement of the Lorain Eagles Nest on Jan. 16.

BAY VILLAGE — It’s been five days since the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center began treating a snowy owl that was rescued from a basement in downtown Lorain, and Amy LeMonds, director of wildlife, said the animal’s health has improved.
“It’s gone up in weight,” LeMonds said. “It was down just a few grams from yesterday, but we have to slowly add in the solid food.”
When the owl was brought into the facility, LeMonds said it weighed about 2 pounds and 4 ounces; smaller than the average 4 pounds, 8 ounces to 5 pounds they typically weigh.
“It went up in weight about 3.5 ounces,” she said. “It’s eating on its own, but not gaining weight how we would want. So we will keep doing the carnivore care to keep getting those calories up, and then slowly keep introducing solid foods.”
After rehydrating the owl, LeMonds said her team began tube feeding the animal “carnivore care,” a substitute diet that provides nutrition in its simplest form to aid in digestion she said. The owl slowly is being introduced to beef and chicken liver, along with rat pups because of their soft bone structure.
LeMonds said because of the owl’s condition, the sex of the animal remains undetermined. She said she hopes once its weight is brought up to normal, she will be able to transfer the owl to a veterinarian for a complete examination.
At that time, technicians could possibly do a genetic test to confirm its sex. But for now, LeMonds said she thinks she has it narrowed down.
“We’re not sure if it’s a juvenile male; which is what we are thinking, or a female because of the barring,” she said.
Naturally, female snowy owls will display more of the darker bars compared to males which tend to be more white, LeMonds said. Juvenile owls will have the darker barring as well, she added.
Looking forward to the “best case scenario,” LeMonds said she will continue to help the owl add weight and then get it into a flight cage to improve its flight abilities and redevelop muscle mass, in hopes of releasing it back into the wild within the next couple of weeks.
“We’re focusing on not missing the migration period for it going back,” she said. “We’re looking at talking to some specialists to see what we need to do to help it get back to the arctic.”
LeMonds and Mike Tillman, a maintenance worker for the Palace Theatre, rescued the owl Thursday after Tillman spotted it while searching the basement of the Eagles Nest, 575 Broadway, for a water leak.
“I about had a heart attack,” Tillman said Thursday.
As to how it made its way into the basement of the Eagles Nest, that remains a mystery.
“I went through the building and I cannot figure out how it got in,” Tillman said. “I searched the basement, I searched the windows and I didn’t find any obvious spots where it could have gotten in.”
The maintenance worker said he did notice an open door on the roof of the building that leads to a sealed, unfinished suite, but said it was highly unlikely that the owl would have made it out of that room.
The wind does periodically blow open the door, but there’s no way for it to have gotten down into the basement from there, he said. The doors leading to the stairs are always closed, and the elevator shaft is bolted shut, he added.
“There’s a stairwell, but these doors are always closed,” Tillman said. “Actually, all the stairwells are closed, so it really couldn’t have gotten in there and found its way into the basement. No way.”
Tillman said a ventilation system leading from the kitchen area of the building also peaked his curiosity, but finds it to be a highly unlikely point of entry.
“I really don’t think there’s enough room for a bird that big to get through,” he said. “I’m still perplexed as to how it got in.”